Chapter 4: Non-deductive arguments

So far we have been discussing deductive arguments: arguments that are intended to conclusively prove their conclusions. However there are many arguments that give us good reasons to believe their conclusions even though they are not deductively valid. In this chapter we consider these non-deductive arguments.

• Introduction to non-deductive arguments
• Probabilistic arguments
• Enumerative inferences
• Arguments from samples
• Analogy
• Causal reasoning
• Inference to the best explanation
• Chapter 4 questions